This morning, Mac and I loaded up to go help at the MN Horse and Hunt Club as the Metro Pheasants Forever was holding a spring European Shoot, also referred to as a "peg shoot." I had no real inkling of what this was, but since Mac and I are game for most anything, we offered to help when asked by our retriever club.
I was quite curious as I have heard about the shoots held in Europe, and since the FCR was developed in England as the gamekeeper's dog, I figured this would be a great educational opportunity for me. Mac was the only FCR in attendance, along with a handful of Goldens/GSPs, and an abundance of Labradors.
A peg shoot, as I have now learned, consists of paired gunners who are assigned a dog/handler team. There are numerous stations, which are numbered. There can be any number of stations, of any configuration (ours was circular around a pond,) and each station is indicated by a flagged stake -- these are the "pegs." Two gunners + dog + dog handler are assigned to a starting peg. A horn sounds and birds are released by hidden bird handlers (different from a tower shoot, where the birds fly high and fast out of a fixed tower.) The birds are free to fly anywhere they please, and if a bird comes into the zone of your peg, gunners can fire, and dogs can retrieve the downed birds. Some of the birds have special bands on them which the gunners can turn in later for a raffle or other such prize, etc. After about 15-20 minutes of shooting, the horn sounds again, and the round is over. Then you rotate to a different peg, and a different view. This keeps things fun, and fair, as wind and terrain can push birds heavily in one direction or another. Today's shoot would be six rounds, each at a different peg.
As I was walking to our peg it became apparent that everyone would be quite close together, as some pegs were only 25-30 yards apart. Soon we had all greeted each other, assembled, and were readily scouting the zone around our peg. I was very focused on this as, in theory, Mac was only supposed to retrieve birds shot by his gunners, in his zone. Then the horn sounded, signifying not only the start of the first round, but also the end of the aforementioned theory. :)
The birds started flying right away, and this was all very exciting for the dogs. There was a lot of shooting, and so many birds to watch in the sky! Birds were dropping, dogs were breaking out of their zones--all in all, it was somewhat chaotic. Mac has been in hard training for steady the past couple months, but it became quickly apparent to me that "steady dog" equated to "dog who had all his birds stolen by the neighbor dogs," so I lightened up and let Mac go a little early. Then the horn would sound to stop the round, we would unload and move. It took a couple pegs for Mac to figure this new game out, and the dogs quickly knew the horn meant birds. So, everyone was quite excited to hear the horn.
A few times, one or more dogs beat him to our gunners' birds, at which point Mac said, in gentlemanly fashion, "Pardon me, but I believe you have picked up my bird in error, and I would like to ask you to put it down, please." Mac starts out polite like that. When this approach was unsuccessful, he began a fast and agile display of bird theft, always returning with the bird I sent him for, even if another dog beat him to it. Or gunners loved this. (The dog trainer in me did not.) I let him sort it out with the other dogs on his own. Mac is a grown-up and speaks dog much more fluently than I.
Our gunners had the most success in round 5 & 6; Mac came home dirty, tired, having retrieved a pile of birds, and even left with a cash tip towards ice cream later today. :)
I was quite curious as I have heard about the shoots held in Europe, and since the FCR was developed in England as the gamekeeper's dog, I figured this would be a great educational opportunity for me. Mac was the only FCR in attendance, along with a handful of Goldens/GSPs, and an abundance of Labradors.
A peg shoot, as I have now learned, consists of paired gunners who are assigned a dog/handler team. There are numerous stations, which are numbered. There can be any number of stations, of any configuration (ours was circular around a pond,) and each station is indicated by a flagged stake -- these are the "pegs." Two gunners + dog + dog handler are assigned to a starting peg. A horn sounds and birds are released by hidden bird handlers (different from a tower shoot, where the birds fly high and fast out of a fixed tower.) The birds are free to fly anywhere they please, and if a bird comes into the zone of your peg, gunners can fire, and dogs can retrieve the downed birds. Some of the birds have special bands on them which the gunners can turn in later for a raffle or other such prize, etc. After about 15-20 minutes of shooting, the horn sounds again, and the round is over. Then you rotate to a different peg, and a different view. This keeps things fun, and fair, as wind and terrain can push birds heavily in one direction or another. Today's shoot would be six rounds, each at a different peg.
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| Mac and I waiting to meet our gunners at Peg 8. |
As I was walking to our peg it became apparent that everyone would be quite close together, as some pegs were only 25-30 yards apart. Soon we had all greeted each other, assembled, and were readily scouting the zone around our peg. I was very focused on this as, in theory, Mac was only supposed to retrieve birds shot by his gunners, in his zone. Then the horn sounded, signifying not only the start of the first round, but also the end of the aforementioned theory. :)
The birds started flying right away, and this was all very exciting for the dogs. There was a lot of shooting, and so many birds to watch in the sky! Birds were dropping, dogs were breaking out of their zones--all in all, it was somewhat chaotic. Mac has been in hard training for steady the past couple months, but it became quickly apparent to me that "steady dog" equated to "dog who had all his birds stolen by the neighbor dogs," so I lightened up and let Mac go a little early. Then the horn would sound to stop the round, we would unload and move. It took a couple pegs for Mac to figure this new game out, and the dogs quickly knew the horn meant birds. So, everyone was quite excited to hear the horn.
A few times, one or more dogs beat him to our gunners' birds, at which point Mac said, in gentlemanly fashion, "Pardon me, but I believe you have picked up my bird in error, and I would like to ask you to put it down, please." Mac starts out polite like that. When this approach was unsuccessful, he began a fast and agile display of bird theft, always returning with the bird I sent him for, even if another dog beat him to it. Or gunners loved this. (The dog trainer in me did not.) I let him sort it out with the other dogs on his own. Mac is a grown-up and speaks dog much more fluently than I.
Our gunners had the most success in round 5 & 6; Mac came home dirty, tired, having retrieved a pile of birds, and even left with a cash tip towards ice cream later today. :)
Sounds like a lot of fun but I would be a little concerned about all the breaking. As long as Mac knows the difference when he goes to a hunt test. Like you say I am sure he can figure it out. Hope he enjoyed the icecream.
ReplyDeleteI eventually gave up and held his collar/made a game of it...for sure not the environment to teach steady!
ReplyDeleteThis makes more sense to me now that I saw the explanation in print. Sounds kinda neat, actually --
ReplyDeleteMom from PHS 117